| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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Appendix I
Indo-European Roots |
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| ENTRY: | gw - |
| DEFINITION: | Also gwem-. To go, come. Oldest form *gwe 2-, colored to *gwa2-, contracted to *gw-.
Derivatives include welcome, adventure, souvenir, acrobat, and diabetes.
1a. come, from Old English cuman, to come; b. welcome, from Old English wilcuma, a welcome guest, and wilcume, the greeting of welcome, from Germanic compound *wil-kum n-, a desirable guest (*wil-, desirable; see wel-1), from *kumn-, he who comes, a guest; c. become, from Old English becuman, to become, from Germanic compound *bi-kuman, to arrive, come to be (*bi-, intensive prefix; see ambhi). a–c all from Germanic *kuman. 2. Suffixed form *gw(e)m-yo-. venire, venue; advent, adventitious, adventure, avenue, circumvent, contravene, convene, convenient, convent, conventicle, convention, coven, covenant, event, eventual, intervene, invent, inventory, misadventure, parvenu, prevenient, prevent, provenance, provenience, revenant, revenue, souvenir, subvention, supervene, from Latin ven re, to come. 3. Suffixed zero-grade form *gw -yo-. base1, basis; abasia, acrobat, adiabatic, amphisbaena, anabaena, anabasis, batophobia, diabase, diabetes, hyperbaton, katabatic, stereobate, stylobate, from Greek bainein, to go, walk, step, with basis (< *gw-ti-, suffixed zero-grade form of *gw-), a stepping, tread, base, -batos (< *gw-to-), going, and -bat s (< *gw-t-), agential suffix, “one that goes or treads, one that is based.” 4. Suffixed zero-grade form *gw()-u- in compound *pres-gwu- (see per1). 5. Basic form *gw-. bema, from Greek bma, step, seat, raised platform. 6. Reduplicated form *gwe-gw-. juggernaut, from Sanskrit jagat, moving, the world, originally present participle of *jagti (remade as jigti), he goes. (Pokorny g - 463.) |
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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